Plenty of New State Taxes

By Conor Clarke

The Wall Street Journal reports that at least ten states are planning major sales or income tax hikes to close budget gaps: Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin.

The most interesting of these, I think, is Arizona -- which, in addition being one of the states hardest hit by the recession (its budget gap this year is $3.4 billion) has both a Republican governor and a Republican legislature. They are now facing off over $1 billion in proposed tax increases.

This happens because states, unlike the federal government, cannot deficit spend. And I would bet that as state tax revenues continue to tumble there will be more state-level Republicans who are willing to stomach tax increases. The breakdown of state budget shortfalls looks pretty bipartisan: